By Marty Cagan · svpg.com · LinkedIn
Marty Cagan argues that product managers who are forbidden from talking directly with users should push hard to change that policy, and if they cannot, should consider leaving for a company where they can do their job. Filtered inputs from surveys, sales engineers, marketing reports, and support summaries are useful but cannot replace direct interaction. Real insight comes from probing underlying needs in face-to-face conversations rather than surface-level requests or statistics. Cagan wants PMs to attend every relevant interview, site visit, and usability test, while leveraging researchers, marketers, and engineers for support without delegating responsibility for understanding users.
01Key takeaways
- Push to change any policy that bars you from speaking with users before considering a job change.
- Treat surveys, reports, and secondhand summaries as supplements, not replacements, for direct user contact.
- Attend every user interview, site visit, and usability test that concerns your product yourself.
- Probe past stated feature requests to uncover the underlying needs driving them.
- Bring researchers, marketers, and lead engineers along, but keep ownership of understanding the user.
- Maintain a roster of 6-10 engaged users to test prototypes and answer questions, who can later act as launch references.
02Key sections
- Restrictive access policies
- Cagan notes PMs are sometimes blocked from customer contact by sales, marketing, or corporate policy. He advises trying to change the policy first, and otherwise finding a better employer.
- Why filtered input falls short
- Surveys, focus groups, SE summaries, and support reports are common but serve as poor substitutes for first-hand understanding of users.
- Attend every interaction
- The PM should personally attend user interviews, site visits, usability tests, and advisory board meetings relevant to their product.
- Dig for underlying needs
- Valuable insight emerges only when interviews probe beneath surface requests, not from accepting stated wants or aggregate percentages at face value.
- Build a standing user panel
- PMs should cultivate 6-10 high-value users for ongoing feedback on prototypes and quick questions, who can later serve as launch references.
03From the post
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Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.